1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for feeding loose fasteners with heads, such as nails or screws, from a sorter to a plurality of fastening machines. The loose fasteners are dumped into the input hopper of a sorter where they are sorted and aligned. They are then fed in the proper orientation and at the proper time to the appropriate fastening machine. This invention is especially suited for feeding nails to a plurality of nailing machines such as are described in the applicant's co-pending application Ser. No. 376,014 filed May 7, 1982.
The invention contemplates the use of a sorter having a single input hopper wherein a large quantity of loose fasteners can be placed in random orientation. The sorted and aligned fasteners are temporarily stored and then fed via pneumatic transfer tubes to several fastening machines in the proper orientation and at the proper time to be used by the fastening machines. This invention is particularly useful in automatic nailing operations such as in the production of wooden pallets, where automatic nailers are operating simultaneously at several positions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art shows numerous designs for nailing machines and associated feeders for them. Typically, there is a single feeder for each such machine. The earliest designs did not use loose nails, but rather fed them from a nail supply magazine. Later designs were capable of using loose nails, which simplified the loading process. An example of a loose nail feeder single nailing machine can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,879,509. This design is satisfactory where the nailing machine is operated manually and independently from other nailers. However, this design creates a problem where multiple nailing machines are operating automatically, performing automatic nailing operations at a number of remote locations under central control, because the operator must check each remote location to determine that the nailing machine located there has an adequate supply of nails.
In this type of operation, because the nailers are controlled from a central location, the remote nailers will normally be operating without the direct supervision of an operator. If one nailing machine was to exhaust it supply of nails, the resulting product would be improperly nailed. In the production of wooden pallets, for example, each wooden member has a plurality of nails holding it in position and consequently, this improper nailing might not be immediately noticed.
The present invention utilizes a sorter having a single hopper feeding all of the fastening machines, which can be located at the central control unit controlling all the automatic fastening machines, and therefore, requires less individual attention to monitor. This minimizes the effort required by the operator to ensure that all fastening machines are being properly fed, and maximizes the likelihood that the automatic fastening operation will continue to run without interruption.
A further advantage of this design is that some expensive components (for example the sorter) which would be required in each individual feeder, can be shared and used to feed multiple fastening machines. In the prior art, one such component would be required for each fastening machines. This provides a savings in overall cost as compared to having a single feeder for each such machine. Other advantages such as decreased maintenance and centralized control over the nail feeding operation are readily apparent.